Huawei Ideos wants to be Nexus One for the people

As Pocket-lint reported recently, Huawei is launching an affordable Android 2.2 mobile phone on Thursday, which will be known as the Ideos.

Ideos isn’t just a funky word plucked out of thin air, it actually derived from Industrial Design Evolution Operating System (IDEOS), which is something the Chinese company says the handset represents.

But we know that you aren't interested in etymology, you want to know the hardcore details.

The most significant point is that the Ideos is a "with Google" branded phone, so like the Nexus One, it is a raw Android device, unskinned. Huawei stressed that the Ideos had been co-developed with Google to ensure that it received over the air updates to Android with no delays.

As such, Huawei is claiming a world's first for the device, saying it is the first affordable "with Google" handset to come pre-installed with Android 2.2.

By affordable, Huawei suggests the retail price will be somewhere around £99-129 on pay as you go, but this will of course be network dependent and they couldn't tell us what network it would be available on, just that it will be landing mid-October.

Internally you get a 528MHz processor and 256MB RAM befitting its budget status and a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a limited resolution of 320 x 240, the two points that might be the obvious drawback of the Ideos.

On the connectivity front you are well catered for however, with Wi-Fi n joining HSDPA for a speedy data connection. You also get the usual suspects of Bluetooth, GPS and a bunch of sensors to give you auto-rotation of the screen and so on.

Around the back is a 3.2-megapixel camera which comes with autofocus, but no flash.

Of course you get all the benefits of Android 2.2, which means storing apps on the microSD card (up to 16GB supported), you'll be able to make it into a 3G Wi-Fi hotspot to connect up to 8 devices, and you should get Flash support in the browser.